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It was taken Paris by myself in the middle of the heatwave of August 2013. I spent a weekend exploring the streets with my Olympus XZ-1. It was around 8am, and I had just emerged from République metro station. It was already swelteringly hot, and the waters of the fountain looked so inviting. The weary traveller in my photograph had removed her shoes, and although she is dozing, her foot is just edging towards that water…. Her red item of clothing, bag and boots almost mimic the posture of the woman herself. Her boots look like they may take the plunge too!

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The area in front of the Hotel de Ville was full of little gardens of wild flowers and sun loungers, part of some special exhibition and so unexpected in the centre of Paris, just gorgeous. Only a few minutes walk later and we were in front of the Notre Dame, I couldn’t believe it! Those of us new to Paris did the obligatory oohs and aahs and took miles of photos. I was quite surprised that the sixteen year olds were as interested and awe-struck as I was, but there you go, some things transcend age don’t they. We made our way back to the River Seine and the Ponte Neuf via a few other amazing but not quite so famous buildings.

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Our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower in Paris was at dusk before the lights were illuminated. We admired the tower for several minutes from the Champ de Mars. There were many people lounging in the grass, enjoying their wine with a view. This looked like a great idea so we came back the next night.

There is no bad view of the Eiffel Tower from the Champ de Mars. We easily found a great spot to relax for the evening. The tower grew brighter the later it got. Around 11 pm the lights sparkled for a few minutes, then again at midnight.

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Sleep Elevations

We are really taken with this series of photos by French photographer Maia Flore. Aptly titled “Sleep Elevations”, the series explores a sort of surreal dream scenario, with each piece featuring a young woman levitating in a sleep/dream state. Sure, sounds bizarre, but the work is oddly beautiful.

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School is no longer out for summer (June 5, 2013)

Today was my first day of classes. I got up super early because there was an excursion before class at 9am to go see a couture exhibit at the city hall. It was really cool and what not, but I don’t think I’m into fashion enough to justify getting up that early and only getting about 5 hours of sleeps. It’s safe to say I am fairly exhausted and am going to be going to bed pretty soon!

After we got back to the center from the exhibit, I went to go get lunch with some people in the program at La Croissanterie, one of the restaurants that we get free lunch tickets for. Normally I have been getting the sandwich with curry and chicken on it, but today I tried the chicken sandwich that had coleslaw on it, and it was pretty good! After lunch, I headed back to the center and uploaded all of my pictures to Facebook (yay!). Class started at 1:30, and there is probably around 12 people in my class. We just read an article in class about francophone countries etc. Class got out at 4:30, and I just walked home.

I went to a cafe across the street from my apartment to complete my 40 some pages of reading that are due tomorrow. I ordered a diabolo, which is pretty much some sparkling lemon juice with some syrup for flavoring. I got strawberry, and it was delicious.

From there, I headed to the supermarket. It was pure chaos. I just bought some cheese, chicken, and a kiwi to eat with some of my bread that was left over from my little picnik by the Seine last night. Becca made some noodles, and shared some with me.

I finally saw my host mom and sister for the first time since Sunday, and was finally able to give them their gifts. I think my host mom is going to try and make some chicken wild rice soup with the wild rice I gave her. We shall see how that turns out! We have a family dinner on Sunday night! Woohoo!

I think me and Erin have decided that we are going to go to southern France for our free weekend. We are planning on going down to Marseilles, and then taking a train over to Cassis, a little coastal town. However, we cannot find any hotel openings at the moment, so we are going to finalize details, and then start looking for housing. We would like to use our one excused absence that Monday so that we have an extended weekend. We shall see! I am going to talk to my teacher and see if that is a possibility.

I also think I might have some sort of stress fracture or something. My foot starts to throb when I walk long distances. Hopefully that will go away soon.

I am exhausted, and I am going to go to bed. I feel like this blog post was very dull, and for that I am sorry. I will make up with it with some pictures from St. Malo, and my time so far in Paris!

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Weekly Travel Theme: Sculpture 06-29-2013

Another great travel theme. I started looking at my travel photos and realized that a lot of them are great pictures of sculptures. So I will break them up into several posts. This first group are all works of the great French sculpture Auguste Rodin. All of these are on display at the Musee Rodin in the gardens and interior of the 18th century Hotel Biron in Paris. Rodin is generally credited as the founding father of modern sculpture. In 1878 when his first important work ”The Age of Bronze”, also known as “The Vanquished”, was exhibited there was a great controversy because it was so perfectly modeled that critics accused him of taking plaster casts directly from his model. Two years later he received a commission for the “Gates of Hell”, a work that he never completed in his lifetime. His best known sculptures are probably “The Thinker” and “The Kiss.